Cult Heroes

[Murphy]

Players who weren't very good, but everyone bloody loved them. Or plays who were half decent but just had something about them which made the fans adore them.

I'll nominate three for us...

Femi - Used to be Lee's picture on here, left-back who was pretty bloody unorthodox and had a great year in Still's last full season here. Was never the same under Burnett and is now at York obviously.

Bas Savage - 'He used to be shite, and now he's still shite', sums him up pretty well. Couldn't fault his work rate though, and for a big bloke his work on the floor was exceptional.

Graeme Montgomery - Maybe not an obvious pick for most Daggers fans, but scored two goals in successive home games at the back of the 09/10 season in injury time which put us in, and then kept us in the play-off positions. The tallest 'winger' you've ever seen, #MontyTime was born against Hereford and Burton. Most recently found scoring belters down at Boreham Wood.

 

[Shrimpurh]

Gary Deegan for the beard and he'll kick everyone up in the air. He's not actually a bad player though and recently he's been a revelation in CM I think he's good but I don't think Northampton fans would agree with that.

 

[shoddycollins]

Zigor Aranalde - although to be fair he was also an awesome defender, fully deserved cult status

Chris Billy - difficult to filter the facts from the legends. not remembered as the best player to ever pull on the shirt even though he did play a part in two promotions. Gave his all, massive cult hero, I believe the Bury fans give him cult status too.

Those two above, the fans had songs about that they still sing to this day. The Chris Billy song has about seven verses.

Chris Lumsdon - or ginger panface, Billy's midfield partner in those two promotions, the two Chris's gave no quarters. Currently the regular match-summariser on BBC Radio Cumbria and in the process of setting up a new supporters' club.

Peter Murphy - MURPH! A lot of fans still disappointed he was released the summer before last after spending 11 years at the club. Classy forward-thinking centre-back who scored the only goals in both our Conference play-off final victory and our JPT final victory... also scored our consolation goal in the JPT final we lost against Swansea. Currently at Ayr United.

Richard Prokas - not a great player but got away scot free after a two footed lunge on Patrick Vieira, the fans (who were enduring one of the worst ever spells of football Carlisle have put together) enjoyed that, a lot. Currently a plasterer I think.

erm...

I think everyone can guess the other one... only ever played 4 or 5 games for us and was no great shakes when playing in his natural position, currently a taxi driver.

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Graeme Montgomery - Maybe not an obvious pick for most Daggers fans, but scored two goals in successive home games at the back of the 09/10 season in injury time which put us in, and then kept us in the play-off positions. The tallest 'winger' you've ever seen, #MontyTime was born against Hereford and Burton. Most recently found scoring belters down at Boreham Wood.

The tallest and slowest winger you've ever seen. He was awful but as you say, definitely a hero.

Jon Nurse is the other choice. I honestly never thought he was as good as some made out but he would always put in a shift. He also played near enough every outfield position for us in his time.

 

[LordJord]

Gary Deegan for the beard and he'll kick everyone up in the air. He's not actually a bad player though and recently he's been a revelation in CM I think he's good but I don't think Northampton fans would agree with that.

Correct! Although to be fair that team was awful so he may of been decent and we never knew (doubt it). Strong beard however.

 

[wilsontown]

Keith Lowe would surely be a good shout for us.

 

[oakroader]

heroes ..... brian stein mick harford paul walsh jean-louis valloire malcolm macdonald paul futcher ricky hill steve foster brian horton alan west jimmy husband.... to name but a few
villains.....vic halom ron futcher tony thorpe graham french(a real villain!!) to name but a few
LOL (Love Our Luton)

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Dean Walling for me - was in a title winning side in 1994 so not entirely poor, bit never did anything else really apart from 1-2 decent seasons.

yet was pretty much worshipped by Carlisle fans at the time.

Richard Keogh was another, but he really kicked on, the strange thing was he was total crap then got shoved to full back by injuries in the squad, when in that position he started making these ridiculous solo runs which latched the fans behind him and he used that fan boost to boost his own career and never looked back.

one of them players who just thrived on a crowd urging him on.

 

[Shrew_fan]

Mickey Brown (sent Chester down!) and Dean Spink would be my Salop suggestions

 

[thewwfc]

Roy Essandoh was the classic for us, the infamous "signed off Teletext" striker who scored the winning goal off the bench vs Leics City in the FA Cup quarter final....but other than that was pretty shocking. And 14 years on...http://www.puregym.com/personal-trainer/roy-essandoh

Keith Ryan wasn't shite, but he primarily had a massive run in the team through being prepared to play in any position you wanted (I think goalie was literally the only place he didn't play with us) and doing a job wherever.

Now in the flooring business: http://www.nowflooring.co.uk/AboutUs.htm

 

[1884 Belmont]

Most of our heroes were actually good/excellent players.
Given the criteria from the OP (IE players who were not very good or decent), I'd say ours may include:
Bas Savage - "Go on Bas", he used to cause L1 defences all sorts of problems for us. He was pretty skilful but Ronnie seemed to get something extra out of him that made him almost unplayable on his day. His dodgy haircuts and moonwalks probably helped get him noticed.
Eddie Sonko - At best a 'decent' player, but because he always used to smile and wave, the fans loved him.
Eugene Dadi - Controversial, but his record apart from with us was pretty poor. However, for us he was supreme and was a major player in Brian Little's playoff squad. Also designed the club suits and a range of clothing that a certain Mike Jackson (now of Shrewsbury's staff) modelled for - seriously, look it up as they are cringe worthy photos.

That's it from my time watching Rovers (20 years or so). The rest of my list would be the likes of Achterberg, Goodison, Greenacre and the like and all were excellent players so don't count in this thread.

 

[LordJord]

Im shocked that Calvin Andrew is yet to make an appearance on this thread.

 

[Pliny Harris]

Baichung Bhutia for Bury.

At least as far as I'm concerned.

First Indian professional in the English game and first Asian to score in the English game. Didn't really do owt but he's a legend of the game back home and has his own soccer schools. I think we played the Indian and Pakistani(?) national teams that pre-season as part of the publicity.

 

[StagsForLife]

Calvin Andrew - Absolutely shite but scored against the Spireites.

Matt Rhead - How can you not love him, He's big, he's slow and usually can't strike a ball with venom but he is an absolute beast in the air and wins usually all of his headers. Oh and he loves to wind the opposition up.

 

[wilsontown]

Calvin Andrew! Certainly divided opinion on our forum, but I'd actually have kept him on at the end of the last season when he was released. He's exactly the sort of player we've been missing this season when plan A was failing.

Also scored against Scunny on the last day of the season, as per the song some of our fans went on the pitch...

Can't be that bad as he's now playing at a higher level.

 

[Murphy]

Matt Rhead - How can you not love him,

How long have you got?

 

[shakerandy]

David Adekola.

Joined us in 1993 claiming he was a former Nigerian international with experience playing in Europe with a host of French clubs including Marsielle. Manager Mike Walsh jumped at the chance to sign him. I'm sure he hit a hat trick on his debut away to Scarborough and a legend was born.

Anyway after a bright start injuries blighted his Bury career and he was allowed to join Wigan before having spells around the country including Brighton and non league clubs. A few years later an article was published which basically said Adekolas career prior to Bury was a lie. He had never played for any of these clubs and the Nigerian Fa had never heard of him.

Legend.

 

[EricSabin]

Clive Platt. Bloody loved him. Quite injury prone, not many people rated him so that made me love him. Ended up with a flag with his face on.

 

[Barton Cobbler]

Bayo Akinfenwa, I've never seen an away player get a reception like Bayo did on his return to Sixfields

 

[EricSabin]

Bayo Akinfenwa, I've never seen an away player get a reception like Bayo did on his return to Sixfields

He's the really obvious one isn't he. Never known a player loved like him.

Pat Gavin and his arse is another. Had the ball cleared against his arse and into the net against Shrewsbury in a must win game to avoid relegation. Now loved to this day, when we were fighting relegation last year a #gavinitlarge movement was spawned to unite the club. He ended up coming to the last game against Oxford and was treated like royalty in the club bar before the game.

 

[T.A]

Adrian LittleJohn- had everything but being able to finish.

Laurent D'jaffo. - a lot of people thought he was a lazy bastard, which to be fair he was but as a 8/9 year old I loved him. Ended up top scorer for us with about 9 goals. Only one less than our top scorer this season

 

[daviejones]

There could be a new cult hero for one club on the last day, or at least I hope it comes to that. I don't really fancy a boring last day where both relegation spots are already decided.

 

[UTS]

Lennel John Lewis!

Poor player but you had to love him. Scored the equaliser at Coventry away after being 2-0 down, a memorable moment.

 

[StagsForLife]

His name is a shop!

 

[Pliny Harris]

David Adekola.

Joined us in 1993 claiming he was a former Nigerian international with experience playing in Europe with a host of French clubs including Marsielle. Manager Mike Walsh jumped at the chance to sign him. I'm sure he hit a hat trick on his debut away to Scarborough and a legend was born.

Anyway after a bright start injuries blighted his Bury career and he was allowed to join Wigan before having spells around the country including Brighton and non league clubs. A few years later an article was published which basically said Adekolas career prior to Bury was a lie. He had never played for any of these clubs and the Nigerian Fa had never heard of him.

Legend.

You've got to wonder how the '90s footballing world couldn't vet the likes of Adekola and Ali Dia.

 

[Murphy]

Would like to add that despite not playing for us, Kevin Ellison is also a cult hero of mine. Player I most look forward to seeing every season we play Morecambe.

 

[Judge Dredd]

We seem to like our fatties at Luton, McNulty was/is a cult hero as was Ian Roper for a while (and he was truly, truly terrible).

Enoch Showumni is probably the biggest cult hero since I've been going though. We plucked him from Sunday league football paying him travel expenses only when we were in administration. "Raw" didn't even begin to cover it, but he was so quick and awkward, defenders didn't know what to do with him (he didn't know what to do with himself most of the time). Scored some vital goals for us the year we won League One under Newell, and eventually went on to have a reasonable lower league career.

 

[UTS]

We seem to like our fatties at Luton, McNulty was/is a cult hero as was Ian Roper for a while (and he was truly, truly terrible).

Enoch Showumni is probably the biggest cult hero since I've been going though. We plucked him from Sunday league football paying him travel expenses only when we were in administration. "Raw" didn't even begin to cover it, but he was so quick and awkward, defenders didn't know what to do with him (he didn't know what to do with himself most of the time). Scored some vital goals for us the year we won League One under Newell, and eventually went on to have a reasonable lower league career.

ENOCH HAS GOT A MASSIVE COCK, ENOCH, ENOCH,
HE TUCKS IT IN HIS FOOTBALL SOCK ENOCH, ENOCH
HE SWINGS HIS COCK AROUND HIS HEAD
HE SHAGGED A GIRL AND NOW SHES DEAD,
ENOCH SHOWUNMI, TRANMERE'S NUMBER 9

 

[shoddycollins]

Joined us in 1993 claiming he was a former Nigerian international with experience playing in Europe with a host of French clubs including Marsielle.

It really was a different world back when we didn't have the internet.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Calvin Andrew once scored a goal off his backside to put us through to the FA Cup 3rd Round v Liverpool, the replay indirectly saving our club.